Daredevil: Born Again showrunner teases that the MCU show is "even more grounded" than DC spin-off The Penguin, going "as far as a Disney Plus show has ever gone"

Charlie Cox in Daredevil Born Again (2025)
(Image credit: Marvel)

If you thought The Batman spin-off show The Penguin was gritty, it looks like superhero fans ain't seen nothing yet. That's according to Daredevil: Born Again showrunner Dario Scardapane, who teases that the upcoming Marvel show is "even more grounded" than last year's hit DC series.

Naturally, comparisons are already being drawn between the two shows given that both are darker takes on the superhero genre. However, speaking to SFX magazine, which features Daredevil: Born Again on the cover and hits newsstands on January 29, Scardapane emphasizes that whilst the two do share similar DNA, the new MCU series takes things further.

As he explains: "It's really strange. You work in a vacuum and then something else comes out and you go, 'Oh, wow'. I would say in many ways The Penguin is our direct competition. However, we're even more grounded, even less stylized, even more rooted in the here and now. I loved Penguin. We're a little faster, meaner, cleaner in our storytelling."

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Picking up five years after the Netflix show, Daredevil: Born Again sees a retired Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) forced to return to his vigilante life when old enemy Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) pursues new endeavors in New York, setting the pair on a collision course.

If you were worried that the new show would be Disneyfied, Scardapane also has promising news, as not only does it ratchet things up when compared to The Penguin, but it goes "as far as a Disney Plus show has ever gone".

In fact, the writer even states that it's darker than the original Netflix series, which certainly has us intrigued. Scardapane continues: "It has a pace and a scope that, for a lot of reasons, Netflix wasn't able to do. They were very dark cinematically, not necessarily story-wise, although there were some dark elements. We're much darker. This is as far as a Disney Plus show has ever gone."

Daredevil: Born Again premieres on Disney Plus on March 4 in the US and March 5 in the UK. Read more in the latest issue of SFX magazine, which will be available from Wednesday, January 29. Check out the awesome cover below...

Emily Murray
Entertainment Editor

As Entertainment Editor at GamesRadar, I oversee all the online content for Total Film and SFX magazine. Previously I've worked for the BBC, Zavvi, UNILAD, Yahoo, Digital Spy and more.

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